SARS: (Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome)

Unless you’ve recently been on vacation, hidden away without access to TV, radio or the printed word, you are aware of the worldwide health scare being called SARS.

I thought it would benefit us to take a look at some things we know and maybe some things we don’t know.

• Currently there are 2,600 – 2,800 stricken with SARS
o In about 20 countries around the world
• 100 deaths are now attributed to SARS
o Most in China
• 240 people exposed to SARS in a Hong Kong apartment complex were taken away to a quarantine camp
• In San Jose, California a returning plane (from Japan) was held on the runway for several hours because of 5 passengers suspected of having SARS.
o They didn’t.
• US is giving free flights out of China for diplomatic staff

What is it?

• Not 100% sure
o But fairly certain
• Corona virus
o Cold / Flu virus

So while we can’t yet be 100% certain we do believe this is a mutation or variation on the same common virus that causes the cold or flu in people. There is some speculation that this may have been originally spread from animals to humans. But, this is also not certain at this time. It is believed that this virus started sometime around the first of the year in China: Southern Guangdong. It is also known that the Chinese government sought to keep this secret and issued mandates to health workers around the 27th of January to that effect.

Symptoms

• Pneumonia-like symptoms
• High fever
o Above 38 degrees c / 100 degrees f
• Cough
o Sneezing
• Shortness of breath
• Difficulty breathing

How Is It Spread?

• Droplets (fluid)
o Airborne
• Cough, sneeze, other bodily fluids
• May live outside the body for a couple hours
• Direct contact

What this means is that it is basically spread in the same way a cold or flu is spread. The danger from infection, in a way, comes more from you giving it to yourself than from someone else directly infecting you. What I mean is, someone coughs and droplets are transmitted through the air to a tabletop or other surface. The virus can survive for several hours here. During that time you place your hand on the table and then you rub your eye, your nose or touch your mouth and carry the virus from the table to your mucus membranes. It could also be someone coughs and they cover their mouth, but then turn a door handle which you then touch.

What Can You Do?

• Wash your hands
o Frequently!
o Not antibiotic soap

As with a cold or flu one of the best things you can do is frequent hand washing. You should not however buy into the current craze of using antibacterial soap.

First, there is no way this can help with a cold, flu or SARS – these are caused by a virus and viruses are not killed by antibacterial agents.

Second, using antibacterial soaps kills off a number of “normal” or “common” bacterial found on the human skin. However, not all will be killed and those that aren’t will then mutate into resistant strains that could turn into a super bug and we could be faced with a bacteria doing the same thing SARS is now doing.

• Cover your mouth
o When coughing or sneezing
o Then wash your hands

In the cover your mouth area we should mention something about the current fashion trend: face or surgical masks being worn in public.

I recently flew through Taipei and all the Customs and Immigrations workers were wearing masks and latex or other gloves. While in Japan I saw many with masks and there were even some with the new fashion statement coming through Customs in Manila.

I would say that wearing the gloves is not a bad idea since these people are touching personal effects that people may have transmitted bodily fluids on… as long as they don’t rub their eyes, nose or mouth with the gloves on or they’ve just defeated the purpose.

However, I don’t see much value in wearing a face mask. Studies have shown that even surgical (professional type) face masks do not hinder the flow of a tiny virus the size of the corona virus – or even a microbe as large as the one that causes TB for that matter.

The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) does advise that its workers wear a face mask… but a special one: N-95 Respirator. This mask must be specially fitted to the individual wearer and even then it will only filter out 95% of microbes that are 0.3 microns in size, or larger. The human corona virus is 0.1 to 0.2 microns in size, which means all of them could still pass through this very special mask.

The Japanese have been wearing face masks in public for many, many years. I saw it on my first visit to the country almost 20 years ago. But they do it for a different reason (generally). When they have a cold or cough, they wear the mask so as not to cough on anyone – not spread droplets via the air. This is done out of common courtesy for others and this does have some merit. While it can’t fully stop the virus, because of its size, it can stop the droplets from being spread through the air to things others might come into contact with.

• Seek help – if needed
o Don’t wait
o If you have symptoms for several days get checked
• Protect yourself!
o Supplement
o Symmetry

Aside from frequent hand washing one of the best strategies to avoid SARS is to keep your immune system strong. Not everyone that comes into contact with this disease will get it. Not everyone that gets it will die. If your immune function is optimal your body will deal with the virus and you will not get sick. If you are less than optimal but not completely run down you may be infected but can experience less severe symptoms and recover faster than others.

I would suggest that to keep your immune function at optimal levels you should be regularly taking:

NutraPack, NutraMax, Ultra Vitality Drink, or Future Star
Genesis
Immunity
Mega Juice
Advanced Omega

In these times you may also wish to add OptiBreathe but would certainly want to if you developed any symptoms.

Other products you might find beneficial would be:

Botana-E, C & G
Bio-Infinity
Premium Plus
ColdRX
Calcium Coverage (calcium does help balance the hormonal system and regulates the pH of the body which can help create a positive or negative environment for viruses and bacteria.

Lastly, I would like you to consider this…

In the past 3 months about 100 people have died worldwide from SARS and this is creating a media stir and unrest in countries around the world.

During this same time period about 30,000 people have died – in just the United States – by contacting a virus or bacteria while in the hospital, to be treated for something unrelated. That is to say you go to the hospital for an infection in your big toe, or to have some surgery and while the treatment for your problem goes fine, you eventually die from a “bug” you catch from the hospital.

Why is it that we are so aware, so scared, by something that has killed 100 people over the entire world while we don’t even think about 30,000 being killed in the U.S. alone? (We don’t have statistics for the entire world for this but the figure is undoubtedly higher in some other countries.)

And think about this… There are more people dying of heart disease, the #1 killer, cancer and stroke than the 30,000 dying from hospital induced infections. If people would get as concerned, as scared, about death from these things, that are much more likely to affect them, maybe they would start to take better care of themselves and avoid these terrible diseases in the first place since studies have shown supplementation can dramatically reduce your chances of getting these.

SARS: Update

Recent numbers can be a bit scary regarding the sudden, worldwide rise of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome or SARS and its subsequent death toll. However, how we feel about it really depends on how we look at the numbers.

I’m reminded of the story Rudy often tells of the child in school taking a test… the test comes back and in big bright red letters, it says, you got 3 WRONG. It could have said, you got 7 CORRECT (on a 10 question quiz) but instead focuses on the negative. So it is with SARS. Let’s look at the numbers in a slightly different way than you have probably seen.

China has the highest number of SARS cases worldwide. If you hear that they have 2,305 cases, that doesn’t sound very good. But, China has a population of: 1,287,253,466 which means it affects less than 0.00001844% of the population. (And I rounded off to just 1,285,000,000 people!) That is one very tiny number or percent! It is more likely that you will be hit by lightening than contract SARS, if you are Chinese.

China also has the highest number of deaths at 106. (As of Wednesday, April 23, 2003) While this may also sound like a lot, the percentage of people that have died is about 4.5% of those that have contracted the syndrome OR 95.5 % of the people that have contracted SARS did not die. Gee, that doesn’t sound quite so bad.

In the US, we have had 39 cases in the whole country and our death rate from SARS is 0% Not one person has died in the US from SARS, everyone has recovered.

Recently Canada, more specifically Toronto, was put on the “watch list” by the WHO (World Health Organization). The city of Toronto has a population of 2.48 million people with 324 cases of SARS. This means it affects 0.001296% of the city, or about 1 millionth of the population. You might have a better chance of winning the lottery than catching SARS in Toronto!

To further put these numbers in perspective, let’s look at the 10 leading causes of death in the United States:
1. Heart disease
2. Cancer
3. Stroke
4. Chronic lower respiratory diseases (like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease)
5. Accidents
6. Diabetes
7. Influenza and pneumonia
8. Alzheimer’s disease
9. Kidney disease
10. Septicemia

This morning I was listening to the news as a physician/researcher was saying that SARS not only resembles the flu but also many of the symptoms associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. So if we add these two categories together, lung/respiratory disease kills 187,911 people each year – in just the US. This makes it the #3 killer in the United States, killing 15,659 innocent people each month! Over 15,000 people, in not the whole world, but just the US, die from the flu and related respiratory diseases each month!

We also have almost 60,500 die each month of heart disease, almost 46,000 a month die from cancer, and almost 14,000 each month die from a stroke. With numbers like these, why are we so up in arms over something that is killing 46 people each month – over the entire world? We are having over 15,000 die of the flu and other lung/respiratory diseases in the US each month while not 1 single person here has died of SARS and yet it’s the headlines of all the papers.

Why are we not making a huge deal over the 60,000 that die each month of heart disease - that could be largely prevented? Indeed the American Medical Association as come out with the recommendation that everyone take a simple multi-vitamin as it can help prevent many of the conditions listed as the top ten killers in the US. Why is this news not being made as important as it should be?

If you want to avoid SARS and more importantly, the real killers out there, take care of yourself. Take your supplements! For a strong immune system take NutraPack, Mega Juice, Advanced Omega and Immunity regularly. Other great products would be the Protection 4 Life Pack with Genesis, Botana-C, E, & G, Male or Female Balance to keep your hormonal system in balance, and any other of our blended, synergistically balanced formulas.

Symmetry, for the health of it!